Sunday, August 10, 2014

August 9, 2014: One Day Ride Across Michigan (ODRAM)

A number of years ago, my dad did this ride called ODRAM (http://www.odram.com/) (which stands for One Day Ride Across Michigan). Like the name indicates, it's a bicycle ride across the state of Michigan. Also like the name indicates, you do that ride in one day. From Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. How far is that, you ask? Well, it’s about 150 miles. And yes, one does it in one day.

I decided I wanted to do this ride.

And finally, a couple years ago I got serious about doing it. Sadly, I was in a fairly serious bike accident while on a training ride and due to injuries sustained in the accident (namely, a broken elbow) I wasn’t able to do the ride. The following year I was hampered by a bum knee. But this year… nothing was going to stop me this year.

And yesterday, August 9th, after hundreds of miles across months of training that started with a 16 mile ride in Florida in mid-March and culminated in a hilly Harlem Valley Ride century in New York in late July, I was able to successfully complete the 150 mile trek across my home state of Michigan with my dad. We did the ride in 11 hours 57 minutes, three minutes inside of our 12 hour goal. And this in spite of a pretty significant headwind the entire way! I say that because we set the goal assuming Michigan’s westerly prevailing winds would, well, prevail and give us a tail wind. Alas, they did not prevail, resulting in an (*shakes fist at the air*) easterly wind. So to meet our goal despite that? Well, we were thrilled!

The ride was an amazing experience of camaraderie, long roads (some smooth, some not so much), farmlands, orange arrows guiding our way, Gatorade, perseverance, and fun. Many thanks to those that organized it (they did an amazing job!) and to those that passed us with a friendly word of encouragement along the way. And many thanks to my mom who drove SAG for us!

Now, here is the 150 mile, 12 hour journey in pictures.

Actually, the journey started the evening before with packet pickup. See what I mean about organization??

And OF COURSE, the journey started with carb loading the night before, too: Spaghetti and meatballs and garlic bread (NOM NOM) at Villa Venafro.

And, even on the day of the ride, the journey begins EARLY. At oh-dark-thirty. For being on your bike at 6:15 am ready to ride 150 miles means being up much earlier than that.

First order of business: drive across the parking lot to McDonald’s for coffee (only the drivein is open that early, so yes, I did literally drive across the parking lot) to go with pre-made French toast for breakfast.

Then it was off to Meinert Park for a pre-dawn start!! ((Note: the park wasn’t the official start, we just went there to get as close to Lake Michigan as possible. We joined the official route about 3 miles inland.) The excitement (and the nerves) were building)! This here lovely picture is of me and my Dad (and riding partner for the day) at the park. Yes, it was that dark! But hey, at least the camera flash proved that our reflective vests were really quite reflective!

And, the requisite “Here we are at Lake Michigan!” picture. You’ll have to trust me that Lake Michigan really is out there in that soupy darkness.

Then we were off! 1.5 miles-ish on newly laid chipseal (hello vibration) coming out of the park in darkness was quite the adventure! Fortunately, the sky started to lighten quickly, and soon we were on smooth roads, as well. Here’s Dad riding into daybreak…

And soon after that the sun poked over the horizon. What a beautiful way to start the day. No, really, look at this. So beautiful.

We were so chipper as the sun came up and our legs were still fresh and the wind wasn’t biting (yet)!

And, can I just say, that it really is an amazing sight to crest one of the rolling hills and look down this long road, dotted with cyclist literally as far as the eye can see. I really felt like we were a part of something shared and something special. And we were!

But soon, it was time to get down to the business of riding. And in the wind, that means… desperately looking for a paceline!!! *grin* And let me just give a huge THANKS to the couple groups we were able to catch the wheel of. When a smaller rider like myself, can get behind a couple guys like these in the early miles, it pays HUGE dividends in the later miles. So again, thanks!

Another paceline we were able to fly by some cornfields with.

And when we were dropped by a paceline and were riding slightly more relaxed, or left a rider after slowing for a short respite and quick chat with them, we were able to admire the scenery going by. Which, in Mid-Michigan is pretty much farmland (which mean the occasional encounter with lovely fragrance de cow, yes, but mostly just good, healthy looking, often quite beautiful fields.

You know you’re in farm country when…

Sadly, we didn’t see any actual horse and buggies. That would have been fun!

As we rode, we also worked on NOT getting too mesmerized by the long roads…

Fortunately, cyclists (as I said earlier) were almost always in sight in the morning.

But were a little scarcer in the flat roads of the afternoon.

All the while, those friendly bright-orange arrows guiding us (we didn’t have to look at our map once!). My favorite message also painted on the road was when we reached “100 miles (ish)”. But I have to ask, was the 1 mile to go marker really at one mile to go? It felt a lot more like two miles… ;)

Coming out of lunch:

Turn left here!

And to break up the day, we, of course, had various rest breaks. Some with our SAG (hi mom!) and a couple ride sponsored breaks (yay, bathrooms, water bottle fill-ups, and fruit (seriously, these are must-haves on a long ride!), in addition to the lunch break (best turkey sandwich ever!).

Lunch time – we’re half way, yay!

Re-fueling at mile 95(ish) with apple and peanut butter.

I told you it was windy! This gust just took down all these bikes! Just kidding. This is at the final rest stop, 30 miles from the finish. The bikes are getting just as tired as the people riding them. ;)

Here’s me coming in to meet our SAG (again, hi mom!) for our final stop, 15 miles from the finish.

Oh! And just because I want to brag a little, here’s my bike computer reading 108.7 miles for the trip, meaning from then on out, I was on the longest ride I’ve ever done in my life! (my previous PLRR (Personal Long Ride Record) was 108.5 miles).

So, yes, there was much to occupy the time – concentrating on pacelining, concentrating on potholes (thankfully only through a few bad stretches), trying to reason with mother nature that we were duly impressed and she didn’t need to blow an east wind ALL day, looking at corn, chatting with other riders, and taking breaks. But what else does one do on a 12 hour bike ride? Well, if you’re me, you apparently take selfies. Lots and lots of selfies. Hey, a girl’s gotta keep herself entertained, right? ;) (and, gee, can you tell which ones I took later in the day? LOL) Don’t try this at home, kids.

And finally, untold selfies and untold pedal strokes later, we made it to the finish! Oh, what a feeling!

Look! Lake Huron! We made it!

Mmmm, they have hamburgers waiting for us! Food!

And, of course, proud finish pictures. :)

Holding the finish banner so the wind doesn’t obscure it.

Wahoo!!

And here’s all of us, including mom!

Thanks again to all the organizers, volunteers, other riders, all the cars that gave us a wide berth, and general cheer-ers along the way! It was a great day!

2 comments:

Great pictures and accompanying patter. I enjoyed it as much as if I'd done it myself. I did a century 30 years ago, and I, too, was proud of myself. Congratulations, Jill & Larry--and your biggest supporter, Judy, or "Mom." (Jan Leckrone)

Nice report and photos. I was surprised to see myself - second rider in the second paceline shot. Blue and white jersey, red sleeves with a big Carradice saddle bag! Glad we could help you out for a bit there, 'cause by the end I was dragging. ODRAM, RAIL, RAIN (2013) I have had headwinds, 3 for 3. Sooner or later a tailwind will come . . . If you liked ODRAM, try RAIN. 1300+ people, great stops, great route, picking just one would be very difficult.